On January 15, 2013 at 20:24:59 MSK (16:24:59 UTC) the Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Rockot space launcher with Briz-KM booster stage from the launch pad No. 3 of the launch complex No. 133 of the Plesetsk test site. The rocket successfully delivered to orbit three military communication satellites of the Rodnik type. According to Novosti Kosmonavtiki, these are Rodnik-S/14F132 satellites.

The satellites received designations Cosmos-2482, Cosmos-2483, and Cosmos-2484 and were catalogued by NORAD as 39057, 39058, and 39059. They received international designations 2013-01A, 2013-01B, and 2013-01C. Satellites were deployed in nearly circular orbits with altitude of about 1500 km, inclination of 82.5 degrees, and orbital period of about 116 minutes.

Rodnik is a successor of Strela-3 communication satellites. it is sometimes referred to as Strela-3M. The first launch of a Rodnik took place in December 2005.

UPDATE 05/15/2013: According to Russian press reports, the launch was only partially successful. Because of a malfunction of the Briz-KM booster stage, the satellites did not reach their nominal orbits and one satellite (39058) was eventually lost. At the same time, Roskosmos insists that the launch was successful.

Share

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://russianforces.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1400

References to this entry

In May 2013 the Rocket Forces announced that the service is planning to conduct 16 missile launches in 2013 (up from 11, announced in December 2012). However, according to Sergey Karakayev's report to the president, only eight ICBM launches have...

On December 25, 2013 at 04:31 MSK (00:31 UTC) the Space Forces conducted a successful launch of a Rockot space launcher with Briz-KM booster stage from the launch pad No. 3 of the launch complex No. 133 of the Plesetsk...